[Mb-civic] Reuters.com - Rudolph to Plead Guilty in Bombings - Sat Apr 9, 2005 2:44 PM EST

Sat Apr 9 18:04:13 PDT 2005

barbara (barbarasiomos38 at msn.com) has sent you this article.	
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 Rudolph to Plead Guilty in Bombings
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Sat Apr 9, 2005 2:44 PM EST

By Peggy Gargis

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Reuters) - Former U.S. fugitive Eric Rudolph has
agreed to plead guilty to the 1996 bombing of the Summer Olympics in
Atlanta and subsequent blasts at two abortion clinics and a lesbian bar
in a deal that will spare him the death penalty, the Justice Department
said on Friday.

The 38-year-old survivalist and suspected white supremacist will be
sentenced to life in prison without parole for the attacks, which killed
two people and injured more than 100 in Georgia and Alabama.

He also told authorities about an estimated 250 pounds (113 kg) of
explosives hidden in North Carolina as part of a plea bargain, according
to a Justice Department press release. Those explosives have been
disabled, it said.

The deal was announced just two days after jury selection began in
Rudolph's first trial in Birmingham, where he stood accused of planting
a bomb that exploded outside the New Woman All Women Health Care clinic
on Jan. 29, 1998. Off-duty police officer Robert Sanderson was killed
and Emily Lyons, a clinic nurse, was maimed and blinded in one eye in
the attack.

Rudolph also was charged with the 1996 blast that killed a woman in
Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park and the 1997 bombings of an abortion
clinic and lesbian bar in and around the city. He was caught in North
Carolina in 2003 after five years on the run.

"The best interests of justice are served by resolution of this case and
by the skillful operation that secured the dangerous explosives buried
in North Carolina," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in a press
release.

Rudolph is scheduled to plead guilty to the four bombings in separate
court appearances in Birmingham and Atlanta on Wednesday. His defense
lawyers declined to comment on the deal on Friday. 

OUTLAW LEGEND?

One of his victims expressed disappointment at the news.

"For what he did, the death penalty is what I believe fits the crime,"
said Lyons, who has undergone more than a dozen operations as a result
of her injuries.

But federal authorities were aware of an undercurrent of sympathy for
Rudolph, who outfoxed the FBI while on the run and became something of
an outlaw legend not unlike U.S. bank robbers Jesse James and John
Dillinger.

It is believed that residents in western North Carolina, an area that
resonates with anti-government sentiment, helped Rudolph or refrained
from informing on him despite a large government reward.

At the time of his arrest, Rudolph was sporting clean clothes, short
hair, and a couple of days worth of facial stubble -- hardly the
appearance of a person who had been living in the woods and foraging for
berries, game and fish.

Prosecutors also were concerned that some prospective jurors in
Birmingham might be reluctant or unwilling to impose the death penalty
on Rudolph for the abortion clinic bombing.

Alabama has a large population of Christians who are strongly against
abortion. Rudolph was accused of following a white supremacist religion
fiercely opposed to the practice.

(Additional reporting by Jim Vicini in Washington and Verna Gates in
Birmingham) 

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